Page 22 of To Run with the Wild Hunt

"Oh, baby," I said, guilt and sorrow making my eyes sting. "I was just freaked out. Everything was so new and different, and the last thing I remembered was getting run down by dogs and halfway eaten." I petted his hair, trying on a smile for him as he looked up at me with desperate hope. "I don't fuck animals, but you're not an animal. You're a person, and I love you, too. But you never said anything like that again, so I didn't think I could ask for it. You didn't have to do this."

A line appeared between his brows as he tilted his head, confusion writing itself across his face. "But I'll do what you tell me to," he said, sounding baffled. "I would cut off my hand if that's what would please you."

My expression went wry, sorrow easing as his fear melted away. "You've gotta see why that makes me wary of asking you for things that might hurt you, right?"

"But why?" Key asked, with total bewilderment. "I'm yours. You can hurt me if you want."

"Key," I said, giving him a look. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't ever want to hurt you. But you don't ever tell me when something's going to be bad for you, so I can't do anything without being careful." I paused, my mouth tugging to the side. "It's kind of exhausting, actually. I like taking care of you, but it's pretty hard knowing that you won't help me if I make a mistake."

He relaxed, leaning his head back to look up at me with his lips parted. "You can't trust me to say 'no', so you're holding back," he said slowly, as if experiencing the thought for the first time.

Holding back, I realized, my relationship with Nuada snapping into focus. He'd run me down and nearly killed me, and now he was standing back and staying in the shadows so I didn't have to be afraid. But I wanted to be afraid—wanted the exhilaration of having a predator to my back.

I was his soulmate. Surely he knew we were well-matched… but maybe he was afraid of hurting me again, as I was afraid of hurting Key.

I ran my fingertips along Keilain's sharp-tipped elven ear, filing away that little piece of information about the Hunter and focusing back on the now. "It doesn't have to stay that way."

"I promise," Key said, looking at me like a man in love, eager hope lifting his ears. "I swear it. I'll strive to tell you if anything you ask of me will harm me, even if the ask is implied." He smiled at me, showing the tips of sharpened teeth. "I will surely not always be good at it, but I'll try. And late is better than never, true?"

"Yeah," I said with a laugh, tousling his hair. "And I'll try not to be frustrated with you, and to praise you when you're good for me."

My hound shivered, heat coming into his eyes. "I really like that," he said, his voice dropping into a lower register. "I think I always have."

"Do you want to be mine?"

"Yes." Key answered before I even finished speaking. He pushed himself up on his knuckles, keeping his deadly talons away from my skin. "Everything I am is yours, Lexi, from the monstrous prince I was to the hound who ran you down. Whatever you want from me, or whatever you want me to be, I'll strive to give you."

"I want you, and I have the power of the Wild Hunt at my fingertips," I said, my heart beating harder as I leaned forward, the man behind those violet eyes wholly mine. I could have him forever—and I would. "I can put you under my command. Would you like that?"

A shudder ran down his body, his pupils dilating and black fur blooming into being along his forearms. "I'm yours," he said, his voice shaky. "If that's what you want me to be—"

"I want you at my side," I told him fiercely, holding his face in my hands. "I want you to run with me, and I want you to hunt for me." I licked my lips, drowning in the depths of his eyes, the world fading away around us. "I want to kiss you, and for you to love me. I don't want to walk this world alone."

He panted, a whine on the edge of every breath, staring into my eyes as if he couldn't look away.

With slow deliberation, I slid my hands down along his body, pushing the robe off his shoulders to reveal his pale skin. "I want to make you come so hard you forget how to speak. I want to take your knot, and feel you come apart for me."

"Lexi," he whimpered, tilting his head back, baring his throat for me.

I untied the cloth belt of the robe, shoving the cloth off of him to bare his body to me, too.

Key whimpered again, breathing hard. His body shifted as I ran my hands down to slot my thumbs along his fuck-me lines, the black curls of his pubic hair becoming fur and the knot of his red cock growing thicker.

Licking my lips, I leaned into Nuada's power, the wild joy of hunting making my skin prickle. "Blunt your claws for me," I said, command on my tongue.

"Oh, black night," he whispered, shuddering as his body obeyed me. His talons melted away to a dog's dull claws, wrought in silver. His cock twitched, a bead of precome rolling down the thick length. "Oh, Lexi, give me another."

I grinned, my skin flushed and pulse pounding. With feral delight, I slid my thumb into his mouth, pulling his lips back to bare his sharpened teeth. "Blunt your teeth for me," I said, leaning harder into the command.

His teeth changed, becoming a hound's in a man's mouth, the blade-sharp edges of the Prince of Teeth becoming dangerous only by intention.

I cupped his furred balls, sliding my fingers between his legs as he whined with pleasure. "You're mine," I said, anticipation making my breath shallow and my throat tense. This was eternity at my fingertips, and I knew exactly what I was claiming. "Your teeth. Your heart. Your lungs." I wrapped my hand around his knot, my pussy throbbing with want as I squeezed him. "Your cock." I took a deep breath, my heart pounding. "And I'm yours."

I put my command into every word, leaning harder and harder into Nuada's wild power, and with the last word everything broke into brilliance, the whole world changing for me. It was a choice, and it was inescapable, the only thing that ever could have happened. My world was violet and black, and it was red and hot and full of overwhelming devotion. It was balance, like finding the perfect foothold on a solid wall.

Forever. Mine, forever.

"Oh, fuck," Key sobbed out, his pulse throbbing in his throat and cock, every beat of his heart felt against my fingers and deep inside my soul. "Oh, fuck, Lexi, I'm yours, I'm always yours—"

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